State, town request Supreme Court intervention

BOSTON — The state and the town of Aquinnah will ask the nation's highest court to reverse a ruling that paved the way for tribal gaming on Martha’s Vineyard.

In filings with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, attorneys for the state, town and the Aquinnah/Gay Head Community Association wrote that they plan to file a petition for a writ of certiorari — the primary means of appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court — by Aug. 8. The move comes after the appeals court last month sided with the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) in a lawsuit that attempted to stop the tribe’s plan to turn its community center into a gaming hall, reversing a lower court decision that sided with the state and town.

At issue is the question of whether the Aquinnah tribe waived its rights to a casino when it entered into a land deal with the state in 1983, in which it agreed to abide by state and local zoning laws. The appeals court sided with the tribe when it found that the 1988 federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in this case superseded the state agreement.

The “decision concerns the interplay between two federal statutes, both of which strike a delicate balance among the sovereign interests of the federal government, states, and Indian tribes,” the attorneys wrote. “The implications of that issue extend well beyond these parties.”